Jerma985
Jerma985 (born September 22, 1985), also known as Jeremy Elbertson or just Jerma (/ˈdʒɜːrmə/), is an American live streamer, YouTuber, and voice actor known for his elaborate and "borderline surreal" livestreams on Twitch.[2][3][4]
Jerma985 | |||||||
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Born | Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. | September 22, 1985||||||
Other names | Jeremy Elbertson | ||||||
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YouTube information | |||||||
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Location | Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. | ||||||
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Years active | 2016–present | ||||||
Genre | Gaming | ||||||
Followers | 1.4 million | ||||||
Last updated: October 11, 2023 |
Early life and education
Jerma was born on September 22, 1985, to Irish and Polish parents.[5][6][7] Upon receiving a Bachelor of Science in communication studies, Jerma became a substitute teacher, and was a freelance wedding videographer.[8][9]
Career
Early work and voice acting
Jerma previously owned a now defunct website called "jermanet.com". It contained video and audio clips, largely from his college years.[10]
He has given his voice to characters in multiple indie games, such as "Matt" in Galactic Phantasy Prelude,[11] the Engineer in Cryptark,[12] and the Horse Lord Hipparchos in Apotheon.[13]
YouTube
Jerma created his YouTube channel, Jerma985, on June 11, 2011.[14] His content primarily focused on the video game Team Fortress 2, which he used to help raise money for the non-profit organization Camp One Step.[15]
On October 8, 2011, Jerma announced his partnership with the online entertainment network Machinima.[16]
In March 2014, Jerma released the first "Jerma Rumble", an annual production which used the WWE 2K games to make primarily quirky or strange characters, often based on characters from past videos and live streams, and watch them wrestle in-game.[17] In August 2016, Jerma released a live-action wrestling sketch as that year's Jerma Rumble.[18] In 2015, he played multiple low quality Grand Theft Auto clones through the Apple app store, which is to date his most-viewed video.[19]
Twitch
Jerma did not fully transition into Twitch streaming until 2016.[20] He primarily streams video games (such as The Sims) while interacting with viewers in the chat.[21] After transitioning to Twitch as a main platform, he became well known for his "unconventional streams" and green screen performances, which fans used to edit comedic videos.[22]
On September 21, 2019, Jerma hosted a real-life "robot carnival" stream that used viewer-controlled robots, allowing members of the live stream chat to control the aim in carnival games such as ring toss and dunk tank.[23][24]
In March 2021, Jerma hosted a real-life archaeology and geology stream with a paleontologist from the Nevada Science Center.[25] In the stream, he "unearthed" Grotto Beasts!, a fictitious trading card game from the 1990s based on Pokémon.[26] The cards were produced in collaboration with multiple artists. Fans played along with the joke, producing fan art in the form of found footage-style art, such as a website for the eponymous card game made to resemble a GeoCities webpage from the 1990s.[27][25] In early 2022, he donated $10,000 to the Nevada Science Center.[28]
In August 2021, Jerma began his real-life The Sims-inspired "Dollhouse" streams, which he described as his "biggest project yet".[29] The first of three streams, entitled "The Jerma985 Dollhouse", was aired on August 18 and began with a prerecorded video of Jerma choosing his outfit. The streams allowed viewers to control Jerma's actions similar to the way one would control a Sims character: keep him fed, happy, healthy and energetic.[2][30] The Dollhouse series is notable for its high production value[31] as well as the level of control that viewers were allowed to have over the events of the stream.[32] These streams used a combination of visual effects and a real set.
On August 19, 2022, Jerma hosted a streamed baseball game[33] at CarShield Field, featuring the fictitious Jerma Baseball Association. He later compared the game to a "live comedy improv show".[4] During the stream, two fictitious and comedic baseball teams, the Maryland Magicians and the California Circus (made up of semi-professional baseball players and circus performers), played a modified game of baseball with various gimmicks,[4] such as "Power Cards" which provided advantages to the team that played them. Jerma played the role of the umpire.[4][34][35] The event received financial support from sponsors Fansly and Manscaped.[4]
On December 17, 2022, Jerma hosted the 'Jerma Christmas Special', initially posing as a straightforward end-of-year awards stream. Instead, the main channel was then 'hacked' by a character named "The Extinguisher",[36] in which he played Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II's campaign mode as retribution for various broken promises Jerma had made to his community. The awards show continued on an alternate Twitch channel. After an hour of both streams being up simultaneously, Santa Claus appeared and helped the two make amends. This stream was produced by OFFBRAND and Beyond The Summit.[37]
At the end of February 2023, Jerma revealed that Grotto Beasts! was officially being released nearly two years after the initial reveal. The 'revamped' trading card game features art work from 20 different artists, including Jerma himself. There are currently 200 unique cards with four types: Grottos, Beasts, Wishes, and Challengers.[38][39]
On June 12, 2023, it was announced that Jerma had joined OFFBRAND as chief creative officer.[40]
He has collaborated with Ludwig Ahgren.[41]
Awards and nominations
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominated work | Result | Ref. |
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2022 | The Streamer Awards | Best Streamed Event | The Jerma985 Dollhouse | Won | [42] |
League of Their Own | Himself | Won | |||
2023 | Streamer of the Year | Nominated | [43] | ||
Legacy Award | Won | ||||
Best Streamed Event | Jerma Baseball Stream | Nominated |
References
- "About Jerma985". YouTube.
- Howard, Jessica (August 20, 2021). "Twitch Streamer Jerma Is Letting Fans Control Him In 'Sims' Streams". Uproxx. Archived from the original on December 13, 2021. Retrieved December 13, 2021.
- Guerreiro, Guilherme (September 1, 2021). "Press Play to Start: What the emergence of "IRL" streams on Twitch means for gaming". Daily Trojan. Archived from the original on December 13, 2021. Retrieved December 13, 2021.
- Cheng, Alex (October 18, 2022). "With outside the box productions, streamer Jerma985 pushes the boundaries of Twitch". NPR.org. Retrieved October 19, 2022.
- Jerma Streams - Jerma's Birthday Talking, retrieved January 7, 2022
- Jerma985 (July 15, 2012). ""@jlincoln88 hell ya, I'm south of Boston. Im at the derby shoppes all the time with Burgah boy hah. Small world"". Archived from the original on December 13, 2021. Retrieved December 15, 2021 – via Twitter.
- TF2 - Q&A Answer Session: Gameplay/Commentary, retrieved January 7, 2022
- Jerma985 (August 31, 2019). "What Jerma did after college". Archived from the original on December 18, 2021. Retrieved December 18, 2021 – via Twitch.
- Spencer, Maxwell (February 25, 2021). "Elbertson takes teaching tricks to Twitch as Jerma985". The Rubicon. Archived from the original on December 27, 2021. Retrieved December 27, 2021.
- "Jerma's Student Videos, Audio clips, and Animations". March 13, 2005. Archived from the original on March 13, 2005. Retrieved December 18, 2021.
- Jerma985. "Voice Acting: I'm in a Game! [Personal Story]". YouTube. Retrieved December 7, 2022.
- Jerma985 (October 14, 2015). Alien Engineer Frog Actor – via YouTube.
- "Jeremy Harrington's Behind the Voice Actors page". Retrieved June 9, 2021.
- "Jerma985". YouTube. Archived from the original on December 13, 2021. Retrieved December 13, 2021.
- Mary-Justice, Amelia (October 4, 2018). ""Tip of the Hats," a TF2-themed charity event, is the most fun Overwatch fans will have all week". InvenGlobal. Archived from the original on December 13, 2021. Retrieved December 13, 2021.
- Jerma985 (October 8, 2011), Vlog - Partnership and TF2 Server :), archived from the original on December 18, 2021, retrieved December 18, 2021 – via YouTube
- Vas, Gergo (March 13, 2014). "Pro Wrestling Is So Much Better With Sonic And Gabe Newell". Kotaku Australia-AU. Archived from the original on December 13, 2021. Retrieved December 13, 2021.
- Diaz, Ana (August 23, 2021). "A Twitch streamer let people control his life like The Sims, including when he peed". Polygon. Archived from the original on December 15, 2021. Retrieved December 15, 2021.
- Henderson, Rik (October 2, 2015). "This guy plays all the bad iOS GTA clones so you don't have to". www.pocket-lint.com-gb. Archived from the original on December 13, 2021. Retrieved December 13, 2021.
- Williams, Kenneth (August 4, 2021). "Chat will control Jerma in his upcoming "doll house" streams". WIN.gg. Archived from the original on December 13, 2021. Retrieved December 13, 2021.
- Grayson, Nathan (April 19, 2021). "Probably Shouldn't Have Checked On Caramel". Kotaku. Archived from the original on December 13, 2021. Retrieved December 13, 2021.
- Switzer, Eric (September 23, 2019). "Twitch Streamer Creates Backyard Carnival Using Twitch-Controlled Robots". TheGamer. Archived from the original on December 13, 2021. Retrieved December 13, 2021.
- Etra, Alden (August 19, 2021). "Twitch Streamer Jerma Lets Chat Control His Life In IRL Sims Game". Screen Rant. Archived from the original on December 13, 2021. Retrieved December 13, 2021.
- Switzer, Eric (September 23, 2019). "Twitch Streamer Creates Backyard Carnival Using Twitch-Controlled Robots". TheGamer. Retrieved October 28, 2022.
- Grayson, Nathan (March 8, 2021). "A Twitch Streamer Unearthed Cards From A Fake '90s Pokémon Ripoff, And Fans Are Pretending The Series Was Real All Along [UPDATE]". Kotaku. Archived from the original on December 13, 2021. Retrieved December 13, 2021.
- Molke, David (March 9, 2021). "Streamer nutzt den Pokémon-Hype für geniale Fake-Show und alle machen mit". GamePro (in German). Archived from the original on December 27, 2021. Retrieved December 27, 2021.
- Salaun, Theo (March 7, 2021). "What is Grotto Beasts? The 'very real' '90s monster card company owned by Jerma". Dexerto. Archived from the original on December 13, 2021. Retrieved December 13, 2021.
- Nevada Science Center (January 21, 2022). "Thank you @Jerma985 and his community for a $10K donation! We want to give back! Share, tag, tell us why you like science,and #jermagem 💎4 lucky winners receive geodes from the show! Winners announced 1/26. #thankyou #science #geode". Twitter. Archived from the original on January 21, 2022. Retrieved March 12, 2022.
- Taylor, Mollie (August 19, 2021). "IRL Sims stream controlled by viewers goes as well as you'd expect". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on December 13, 2021. Retrieved December 13, 2021.
- "Twitch Streamer Jerma985 Recreates The Sims in Real Life in New Twitch Event". Paste. August 19, 2021. Retrieved April 7, 2022.
- Sato, Kazuo Alerik (August 20, 2021). "Twitch Streamer Jerma985 is Playing a Weird Version of IRL Sims". Game Rant. Archived from the original on December 13, 2021. Retrieved December 13, 2021.
- Gach, Ethan (August 19, 2021). "Twitch Viewers Control Streamer's Life, Sims Style". Kotaku. Archived from the original on December 13, 2021. Retrieved December 13, 2021.
- "Twitch's Biggest Clown Talks About His Wildest Spectacle Yet". Kotaku. August 19, 2022. Retrieved August 20, 2022.
- Jerma Streams - The Baseball Stream, retrieved September 16, 2022
- "The Jerma Baseball Association". Twitch. August 19, 2022. Retrieved August 19, 2022.
- "Luis Jumenez as 'The Extinguisher'". Twitter. December 17, 2022. Retrieved January 20, 2022.
- "Jerma's Christmas Special/Stream Awards 2022". Youtube. December 17, 2022. Retrieved January 20, 2022.
- Innes, Ruby (March 2, 2023). "Jerma's Grotto Beasts Is Real, And It's Available For Pre-Sale Now". Kotaku Australia. Archived from the original on March 2, 2023. Retrieved March 2, 2023.
- "grottobeasts.net". Retrieved March 2, 2023.
- OFFBRAND (June 12, 2023). ".@Jerma985 joins OFFBRAND as Chief Creative Officer". Twitter. Retrieved June 12, 2023.
- Diaz, Ana (August 23, 2021). "A Twitch streamer let people control his life like The Sims, including when he peed". Polygon. Archived from the original on January 8, 2022. Retrieved January 7, 2022.
- Polhamus, Blaine (March 13, 2022). "All 2022 Streamer Award Winners". Dot Esports. Gamurs. Retrieved March 12, 2023.
- Snavely, Adam (March 11, 2023). "Streamer Awards 2023: All results and winners for every category". Dot Esports. Gamurs. Retrieved March 12, 2023.